Revealed: how French secret services 'lost track' of one of the Bataclan bombers

French intelligence agencies knew as far back as 2009 that Ismaël Omar Mostefaï, one of the three suicide bombers who attacked the Batalcan concert hall in Paris, had been radicalised in a group in France led by a veteran jihadist with a history of planning terrorist attacks, Mediapart can reveal. Mostefaï had also been spotted with the group when it was under surveillance in April 2014, and the authorities were later informed that he had almost certainly gone to Syria, at the same time as another future Bataclan bomber. But by late 2014 the secret services no longer knew of his whereabouts. He did not resurface again until November 13th, 2015, when he was part of the coordinated attacks that killed 130 people in Paris. The French authorities, however, deny there was any intelligence blunder. Yann Philippin, Marine Turchi and Fabrice Arfi report.

French secret services lost track of one of the Bataclan concert hall suicide bombers more than a year before the Paris attacks, according to an investigation by Mediapart. The intelligence services knew as far back as 2009 that Ismaël Omar Mostefaï, one of the three attackers who left 89 people dead in the music venue attack on Friday November 13th, had been been radicalised in a group in France led by a veteran jihadist called Abdelilah Ziyad, who has a history of planning terrorist attacks. Mostefaï himself was spotted with the group while it was under surveillance in April 2014, and the authorities were informed by Ankara in November 2014 that he had visited Turkey a year earlier, meaning he had very probably travelled to Syria.